Are you ready for some football (trivia)? | Kitsap Week

The Super Bowl is made up of more than first-downs and turnovers. Fascinating stories emerge surrounding the biggest football game of the season.

SUPER BOWL RINGSWilliam “The Refrigerator” Perry's Super Bowl ring is the manufactured for the NFL. A 50-cent coin can fit through his ring. The ring is a size 25. The average male ring size is between 10 and 12.

At a meeting of American business executives in Russia in June 2005, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft was wearing his recently-acquired Super Bowl ring. Kraft noticed Russian President Vladimir Putin admiring the 4.94-carat diamond ring. In a friendly gesture, Kraft removed his ring to let Putin have a closer look. Putin, who is used to receiving gifts, tried on the ring, put it in his pocket and later left without returning it.

Did the translation of "Have a closer look" come across as "It's for you?” Darn language barrier. While the exact value of the ring is not known, experts believe it is worth more than $15,000.

Kraft, showing a gift for diplomacy, later said the ring was a gift to Putin presented out of "respect and admiration."

Former Green Bay Packer Jerry Kramer was 32,000 feet in the air when nature called. While washing his hands in the small airplane bathroom, he removed his Super Bowl I ring and laid it aside. Minutes later, after returning to his seat, he noticed his empty finger. He dashed back to the bathroom to retrieve it but it was

gone. The flight crew made announcements and helped Kramer search for it, but it didn’t turn up.

Twenty-five years later in 2006, someone tipped off Kramer that his ring was being sold at an Internet auction site. Kramer contacted the company and the ring was pulled from the auction and finally returned to its rightful owner.

In 1996, former Chicago Bears running back, Walter Payton, volunteered as an assistant high school basketball coach at a school in a Chicago suburb. During a trust exercise, Payton removed his Super Bowl ring and gave it to one of the players to keep for a few days. Payton, who died in 1999, never saw the ring again.

The ring was lost when the team players passed it around from player to player for good luck.

In 2001, a student at Purdue University in Lafayette, Ind., found the ring when he went to retrieve a toy his dog had lodged under a couch cushion. He had been given the couch by a friend whose brother had played on Payton’s team. The ring was returned to Payton’s wife.

GREEN BAY PACKERSThe Green Bay Packers began in 1919 when Curly Lambeau and George Calhoun organized the team. Lambeau was working for Indian Packing Company at the time. Lambeau’s employer paid for the jerseys and allowed the use of the company’s athletic field. Thus, the team became known as the “Packers.”

Curly Lambeau was once quarterback, coach, and owner of the Packers at the same time.

Green Bay was the winner of the first two Super Bowls.

PITTSBURGH STEELERSThe team was founded in 1933 as the Pittsburgh Pirates, but later changed to the Steelers in 1940.

Due to depleted rosters during World War II, in 1943, the Steelers and Eagles merged (called the “Steagles”).

They are the only football team in the NFL with a logo on one side of the helmet. It happened when they were trying out a new logo and weren’t sure if they liked it. The team ended up playing really well with the logo on one side, and decided to stick with the one-logo style.

For Sunday’s match-up, 100,000 specially made “terrible towels” for Pittsburgh fans are ironically being manufactured by a Wisconsin company. “Terrible towels” are yellow-gold towels that fans wave to distract the opposing team and to cheer on the Steelers.

Steelers have the most Super Bowl wins with six.

SUPER BOWLAlthough the media used the name “Super Bowl” from the beginning, the name was not officially used by the NFL until Super Bowl IV. Previously, it was called “Championship Game AFL vs NFL.” Thank goodness! “Super Bowl” has a much nicer ring to it and is less of a mouthful.

Is it better to lose the Super Bowl than to have played in it? The Buffalo Bills are the most qualified to answer that question — they attended four straight Super Bowls from 1991-1994 and lost all of them.

Miami is a frequent Super Bowl host city. The Super Bowl has played there 10 times. This is the first time for Dallas to host.

As of Monday, current Super Bowl tickets prices at the NFL’s website ranged from $4,687 to $22,544 per ticket. The tickets must be purchased in pairs or sets of four.

It’s believed a 30-second Super Bowl commercial this year will cost $3 million to air. If you were to stack three million $1 bills, the stack would be 1,000 feet high.

The Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers are located far away from Kitsap County, but that won’t keep local residents from watching the game (although our local tie to Super Bowl XLV may be limited to Cody Boyd, a tight end for the Steelers who played for Washington State).

Even without a strong Kitsap connection, many of us will partake in the true American event of bean dip, beer and ball. Around water coolers the next day, we will discuss highlights and mishaps and maybe even a wardrobe malfunction or two.

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